Don't Let Me Down
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day three hundred and eighty-eight:  don't 2/4  An afternoon of sweet lady kisses turned sour because of duets... solved in a duet.  New A/N added


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 18th cycle. Now cycle 19!_

_**Don't Stop Believin' (twice!), Don't Stand So Close To Me, Don't Make Me Over, Don't Rain on My Parade, Don't Go Breaking My Heart...** - Was noticing how many songs they've done on the show that start with 'Don't' and thus this little set was born ;) A few more entries to the pantheon of "Don't" songs :D [2nd of 4]_

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**"Don't Let Me Down"  
Brittany/Santana  
[song of the same title, combined from the Beatles and the movie Across the Universe] **

This was not how these things usually ended for them… She knew, because her stomach was filled with butterflies, usually, but now… It was like every last vibrant little butterfly had been shot down and now lay dead at the pit of her stomach. She watched Santana get up and go, and she just lay back on her bed, with her faded butterflies.

No matter what she did, no matter what she couldn't understand, she was piecing some things together that even she couldn't mistake… So why wasn't Santana seeing it?

She had her fantastic track record, sure… But just because it was easy with others didn't mean it was better. There was a reason why, of all the people she'd been with, there was just one she hadn't told her mother about… and it wasn't because of the family secret… not all of it. She needed to protect her heart, and she wasn't going to run and risk the one she'd found inside it. She loved her mother, but she had a pretty good idea what she'd say and do if she went to her for truth or advice… It was better this way for now.

Making her way out of the house, careful as always, Santana wasn't playing it as cool as she had just before, when she'd made her exit. Maybe things were too messed up for the moment; she couldn't focus… not that this was par for the course, most times… Brittany kind of had that effect. But this wasn't even 'most times,' it was more. Maybe it was envy, somehow…

She could imagine any other person might not have been so patient, but Brittany… The thing Santana envied her was conviction. She never questioned, never doubted… It didn't matter what it might mean with others, if that slip-up shortly before Sectionals was any indication. As much as Santana loved that about her, she was having a bit more trouble than Brittany with that whole thing. No one knew her the way she did, which could be said for both of them, and if anyone ever thought they could take her place, then they had another thing coming…

As she reached for the door handle, her hand paused and she looked over her shoulder, up to wherever Brittany would be, upstairs… Part of her did honestly want to go back, not leave things like she had, but she couldn't. She opened the door and she walked out, but it wasn't going to end just because she'd left.

Somewhere in the back of their minds they were both thinking the same thing, and it was as close to a duet as they'd get for that time – not for Schuester, and not even aware of it themselves, the further away Santana walked from Brittany's home. But the song was there… calling to her.

_[B] "Don't let me down, don't let me down. / Don't let me down, don't let me down."_

She stared to the side, to her bedroom window so the ceiling wouldn't dizzy her. All that did was to remind her Santana was out there, maybe not gone from sight… So she got up and walked to the window… She saw her, but she was already too far away, walking…

_[S] "Nobody ever loved me like she does, / Ooh she does, yeah she does." / [B] "And if somebody loved me like she'd do me, / Oh she'd do me, yeah she does."_

The hardest part was knowing she'd forget the world for her, lose all pretence… if Santana ever gave the word. But she, herself, she couldn't do it. She'd hear people saying it'd be nice to live in whatever world Brittany was living. It was meant as a joke, a put down, but it was the opposite to her. They should want to live there; Brittany was the bravest person she'd known, the bravest they'd ever known, but they had no idea. They just saw her as a dumb blonde cheerleader… She was so much more than that, to her.

_[B] "Don't let me down, don't let me down. / Don't let me down, don't let me down."_

Brittany watched her disappear further and further up the street, until she couldn't see her anymore, but still her hand remained pressed to the glass of the window. She knew how it'd be at school, the next few days… They'd power through on their separate ways, do the duets… maybe some cold shoulder… She knew she needed to hold off from Santana for a little while, but it'd be for their own good. She just had to let her know that… It couldn't last, because they had to.

_[B] "Oh I'm in love for the first time. / Don't you know it's gonna last." / [S] "It's a love that lasts forever, / It's a love that has no past."_

She wasn't going to do this, she wasn't going to walk down the street, crying like a little bitch. It was just the wind, and her heart beating like that… She just couldn't forget any of it, and it was making her head pound to have to balance so many damned emotions… The scariest was fear…

_[S] "Don't let me down, don't let me down. / Don't let me down, don't let me down."_

Eventually she had to walk away from the window, admit that Santana wasn't going to run back, shouting that she didn't mean any of it, take her in her arms and say of course they'd do the duet together. They'd only thought about it for so long, since the botched 'male duck' duets… So she sat on her bed again, alone.

_[B] "And from the first time that she really done me, / Ooh she done me, she done me good." / [S] "I guess nobody ever really done me, / Ooh she done me, she done me good."_

She'd make it up to Brittany after this, somehow. Maybe a dinner at Breadstix, just the two of them… or would that be too regular, too similar to what they always did? She didn't want this to be 'the usual,' not for Miss Unusual.

Finally, she'd reached her car, parked a distance away, to be 'mom-proofed.' She sat behind the wheel, shut the door, and breathed out in the silence.

_[B/S] "Don't let me down, don't let me down. / Don't let me down, don't let me down."_

Brittany lied back on the bed again, needing to find the lingering scent of her, because it was all she'd have left until they sorted this out. But they would, of that she was confident. If there was one thing she knew about Santana Lopez, it was that she was just as connected to her, as Brittany was to her. No simple Glee Club assignment had any say to change that.

_[B/S] "Don't let me down, don't let me down. / Don't let me down, don't let me down."_

THE END

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**_[A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, story alert won't get you anything! ;)]_**

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**_[A/N2, to reviewer 'b': If you think these stories take me 'ten minutes' you are sorely mistaken. And why am I writing short stories all the time? It's because I'm a full-time university student and that consumes a large portion of my time as it is. These are FICLETS, the idea is for them to be short. I HAVE done chapter stories, about five of them. So when I say that story alert won't get you anything, it means that they are one-shot stories, and therefore signing up for story alert will not get you any alerts. If there are sequels, they'll be separate; if they are chapter-stories it will say so, if you don't like it, then I can't do anything about that.]_**

**_[A/N3, to everyone else: Hope that wasn't too rant-y, but it had to be said, and as 'b' is not a registered user I had to air this out here instead of in a PM. thanks and carry on!]_**


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